Tuesday, 30 May 2017

Where to begin? Gentle reader, since my last post, I've worked almost exclusively on tracing the trail of many new found ancestors, descendants of my 1st cousins 3x removed, siblings Sarah and John Doherty.

I'm almost there. What has caused no ends of confusion are that John's eldest daughter Mary Sarah Doherty married a man with the surname McFeely. As you know, Sarah Doherty married a McCorkell. You see how this can get confusing when spending hours sorting out descendants. And of course where John and Sarah's respective children had children, most of them had very large numbers of them.

I spent many days painstakingly going through the St Paul's parish register here in Toronto, where John Doherty and Margaret Esmonde had their children baptized. I've found 10 of them -- there were apparently 12 -- in that register.

John and Margaret's eldest, Mary Sarah Doherty--always called Sarah-- (1839-1920) married Edward McFeely (1832-1898) at St Paul's on 1 Nov 1859. The marriage details are recorded on one line of the register, across two pages, groom first, noting their ages, where they live, their parents' names, and of course the officiant's name.

McFeely-Doherty marriage 1 Nov 1859 Groom Details

McFeely-Doherty marriage 1 Nov 1859 Bride Details

Here's where things get interesting, and not for the first time.

Look who one of the witnesses was: John R. McCloskey.

Edward's parents, also an Edward McFeely (1798-1879) and Susanna McCloskey (1806-1887) were married in Dungiven, Ireland, in the same church (St Patrick's) that my 2nd great grandparents, Marcus Dougherty and Mary Ann Diamond were married in, and where at least three of their children were baptized.

Sarah's father John Doherty's mother was Bridget McCloskey. Were she and Susanna sisters, or was it an aunt/niece relationship? Was the wedding witness a brother to Susanna? The McCloskey name is one that appears frequently in my Dougherty ancestors' stories.

What is clear is that there were at least three families from the Dungiven area in Toronto in the early to mid 19th century: Doherty, McFeely, McCloskey and McCorkell (that last name will be addressed in a separate post). Community ties established in Ireland carried forward in Canada. But I digress.

Sarah and Edward McFeely settled first in Oakville, west of Toronto, and began their family, which grew to be ten children who survived infancy. Edward farmed. Within a couple of years, they pulled up stakes and moved to the present-day Lindsay in Ontario's Kawarthas region, where Edward is listed in directories and censuses as a tinsmith, like his father-in-law, John Doherty was in Toronto.

1881 Canada census, Victoria South, Ontario

At some point after the 1881 census, the McFeelys moved again, this time to Hennepin, which today is a county that includes the large city of Minneapolis. What brought them there, I wonder? Minneapolis also became home to a couple of Sarah's McCorkell cousins.

As young men, two of Sarah and Edward's sons, Francis Esmonde McFeely (1876-1948) and Edward John McFeely (1863-1928) went to Vancouver, British Columbia where both put down permanent roots, marrying and having three and six+ children respectively. Their father Edward actually died in Vancouver during an 1898 visit there. Another son, Robert (1873-1953) settled in Vancouver, Washington, while Fred (1868-1933) settled in New Orleans.

Of Sarah and Edward's daughters, the eldest, Susanna (1861-1900) married a much older man, who was a judge in Minnesota. They were childless. She died suddenly while on a return visit to her childhood home of Lindsay, Ontario. Agnes (1869-1956) married a railway man with whom she had four children. They moved around, living in St Louis, Brooklyn and finally Dallas. Martha (1871-1940) married a Hennepin man, with whom she had a daughter. They stayed in Minnesota.

Sarah died in Hennepin in 1920, where she had spent her final years living with her unmarried daughters Frances (1863-1941), Florence (1880-1948) and Madeline (1877-1955). Florence was a nurse and Madeline was an office clerk.

1920 US Census Minneapolis

This is the story of just one of John's children and her family. The never ending story continues....

Tuesday, 23 May 2017

Since discovering Sarah Doherty McCorkell a couple of weeks ago, I've been immersed daily, sometimes for hours at a time, in genealogy research, far more than usual. This work has been very rewarding and has led to a lot of extra work. It turns out that Sarah also had a brother, John Doherty (abt 1807-1872), previously unknown to me.

I discovered this after finding a family history written in the late 1960s/early 1970s by Edmund J. McCorkell CSB (1891-1980), The McCorkell Family and its Affiliates, online. Edmund was a grandson of Sarah Doherty McCorkell and, oh yes, 3rd cousin once removed. Edmund gathered his information long before the internet, and it is an impressive body of work, full of detail, including this:

"The McCorkells were
welcomed in Toronto by the Dohertys,
their in-laws, one of whom had come there before 1837, doubtless my grand uncle
John Doherty. In his wife's prayer book
there is recorded under date Nov. 20, 1837 his
marriage with Margaret Esmonde (note the name Esmonde)and a
family of 12 is listed.'

Well! this was another huge find. I quickly started to research John Doherty's life here in Toronto, in what we now call Old Town Toronto -- my neighbourhood. He was a tinsmith and probably arrived in Canada about 1833. On 20 Oct 1837, John married Margaret Esmonde (abt 1815-1867) at what was then the only Catholic church in Toronto, St Paul's Parish, which still stands today in the same location and is a ten minute walk from my home. Yes, that date contradicts the November 1837 date given in Fr McCorkell's account, but in my case, I actually found the record of the marriage in St Paul's parish register.

With his birth date, it looks like John was if not the eldest, certainly among the eldest of the children of my 2nd great-great uncle Thomas Doherty and 2nd great-great aunt, Bridget McCloskey of Dungiven, Ireland.

I've found John listed in several Toronto city directories. He lived and worked in my neighbourhood. Can you imagine? Here are John's children that I've so far found in the unindexed (!) St. Paul's parish register:

Mary SARAH (1839-1920)

Patrick James (1841-?)

Edward

Frances Helen (1843-?)

Henry (abt 1846-?)

John (abt 1847)

Thomas (abt 1849-?)

Margaret (abt 1851-bef 1930)

Martha (abt 1850- aft 1930)

There are so many more stories that I'm uncovering, which I will try to tell here. John's descendants are scattered across Canada and the U.S.

Wednesday, 10 May 2017

When I wrote about my Plantagenet 19th great grandfather John of Gaunt here, I mentioned that I am fascinated by the story of his three wives, Katherine Swynford.

On this day in 1403, my 19th great grandmother, Katherine de Roet Swynford, died in Lincoln. Much has been written about Katherine, but I especially like this 2015 post on the blog History...the Interesting Bits! by Sharon Bennett Connolly.

I enjoy reading Sharon's blog. It's always interesting and fun. I especially love Sharon's title of her post about my ancestor: Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Scandal.

Sunday, 7 May 2017

A tantalizing bright shiny object (BSO) presented itself to me early yesterday morning when a genealogy cousin reminded me that she had sent me details a month ago (!) about a new DNA match. I was out of the country when that happened, but she quickly filled me in. It's a big new find.

The DNA match showed that my genealogy cousin and another person's common ancestor is my 3rd great grandmother Isabella McLaughlin, and that connection is through someone new.

I have a new, previously unknown third cousin once removed, Sarah Doherty (1826-1861), a daughter of Thomas Doherty and Bridget McCloskey. Thomas was one of my 2nd great grandfather Marcus' brothers. The name Sarah confirms that this was a family name. It was a name given by her uncle Marcus Doherty (1815-1903) of Montreal and her great uncle Rev James Dougherty (1796-1878) of Vermont to their respective daughters.

Sarah's husband was Patrick Joseph McCorkell (1824-1904). They married before they emigrated from County Donegal in about 1850 to Canada, settling first in Toronto and then about two hours north of there in what is now Simcoe County. Some of her descendants are still there today. And speaking of descendants, well, I'm still populating my genealogy database with all of them.

The 1861 Canada Census shows Sarah, Patrick and their family living in Mara, near present day Orillia, Ontario.

Canada Census 1861, Township of Mara

As you can see, Sarah and Patrick had six children:

Augustine (abt 1945-1904)

James Edmund (bet 1848 & 1850 - 1923)

Catherine (1851-1927)

Patrick Joseph (1854-1933)

John (1856-1928)

Sarah (1858-1871)

I've already found that four of these sons married and had children. More descendants! Sadly, not long after the census was conducted, Sarah passed away. She was only 34 or 35 years old.

Sarah Doherty's grave marker. Photo found on Ancestry

Did you notice 25 year old Margaret Doughty (sic) on the census? I wonder who she was. She wasn't Sarah's sister -- we already know of that Margaret Dougherty (1819-1893), who was part of the Kingston, New York Doughertys.

But wait there's more. The eldest son, Augustine, made his life in Cincinnati, arriving there by 1870, and staying there the rest of his life, marrying and having eight children.

Readers of this blog will know about my Cincinnati connections. Did he know my five 2nd great aunts and uncles who were there at the same time? They would have been his first cousins once removed, with their mother Sarah being first cousin to my 2nd great grandfather, Marcus Dougherty (1794-1864).

Augustine, his wife, and some of their children are buried in the same Cincinnati cemetery as four of my 2nd great aunts and uncles.

Much work remains to be done, as I try to connect the dots of a Cincinnati connection between these two Dougherty family branches. These new discoveries have again back burnered my Filles du Roi research commitment, but this is far too huge a discovery to set aside.

Contact me!

About Me

My abiding passion is family history research. After many years of serious family history research for both my own family and for extended family, I created this blog to house some of the stories that I've gathered. Genealogy, family history, it's all one and the same for me. No clue is too small to send me off on the hunt of a new lead.